And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten...
Joel 2:25
Being that it was my turn to coordinate today’s service, I was expected to give the congregation a brief exhortation before our scheduled minister was to deliver his sermon...
Joel 2:25
Being that it was my turn to coordinate today’s service, I was expected to give the congregation a brief exhortation before our scheduled minister was to deliver his sermon...
Being that it’s Father’s Day, I decided to give a message to the church about fathers.
So I spoke for about ten minutes beginning by telling the men about my father, and what a good man he was. I then asked them to open their Bibles to the book of Joel the prophet. I explained that Joel was the son of a godly father. The opening verse of Joel reveals this. “The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel” (Joel 1:1). In Hebrew, the name Joel means, “Jehovah is God." While his father’s name means, “persuaded of God.”
I said it is significant that the book starts out with this information. How the very first verse shows that the prophet hails from a godly family headed by a God-fearing man.
I then read to them Joel 1:1-4, followed by Joel 2:21-27. I told the guys that our God is a restorer. He loves to restore both families and nations. Restoration, I said, brings healing to broken relationships, and even inner healing to undo the damage bad relationships have
caused.
I know the men related to this because many of them had bad relationships with their dads. Some, unfortunately, never knew their fathers at all. Yet in spite of such situations, the Lord is able to mend estranged relationships, and bring restoration and reconciliation to them.
I also explained how the labeling in the Scriptures of locusts, cankerworms, palmerworms, and caterpillars, can represent our sins and how destructive sin is. We know such insects devour and destroy all kinds of crops and other types of vegetation. They can also represent the destruction that Satan and demonic influences can cause.
My message ended when I told the congregation that we serve a God of hope, and that He loves to see acts of restoration and reconciliation. What seems impossible for men to accomplish, with God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26.
D. B.
So I spoke for about ten minutes beginning by telling the men about my father, and what a good man he was. I then asked them to open their Bibles to the book of Joel the prophet. I explained that Joel was the son of a godly father. The opening verse of Joel reveals this. “The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel” (Joel 1:1). In Hebrew, the name Joel means, “Jehovah is God." While his father’s name means, “persuaded of God.”
I said it is significant that the book starts out with this information. How the very first verse shows that the prophet hails from a godly family headed by a God-fearing man.
I then read to them Joel 1:1-4, followed by Joel 2:21-27. I told the guys that our God is a restorer. He loves to restore both families and nations. Restoration, I said, brings healing to broken relationships, and even inner healing to undo the damage bad relationships have
caused.
I know the men related to this because many of them had bad relationships with their dads. Some, unfortunately, never knew their fathers at all. Yet in spite of such situations, the Lord is able to mend estranged relationships, and bring restoration and reconciliation to them.
I also explained how the labeling in the Scriptures of locusts, cankerworms, palmerworms, and caterpillars, can represent our sins and how destructive sin is. We know such insects devour and destroy all kinds of crops and other types of vegetation. They can also represent the destruction that Satan and demonic influences can cause.
My message ended when I told the congregation that we serve a God of hope, and that He loves to see acts of restoration and reconciliation. What seems impossible for men to accomplish, with God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26.
D. B.
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